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In 2010 I was living in Melbourne, where he's from. There was a pro Assange petition/demonstration in Richmond. I went over to sign. Assange was an Australian c

In 2010 I was living in Melbourne, where he's from. There was a pro Assange petition/demonstration in Richmond. I went over to sign. Assange was an Australian citizen. The Wikileaks leak was journalistic, as far as I could tell. The Swedish indictments seemed extremely dubious. It definitely felt like an extrajudicial persecution of a journalist. Anyway, the petition did have something about Assange in it, besides the sign. It also demanded an immediate end to Australia's involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan. It called the US imperialist, condemned the alliance, mentioned Israel, various global left wing causes, calls for resistance, etc. I'm not sure if it mentioned freedom of the press at all. I don't remember the details, but it was enough that I didn't sign. The whole thing presented Assange and wikileaks totally as activists. Of course, that doesn't mean that it isn't a press freedom issue. It is. It also doesn't make the pursuit of Assange ok. In some senses, it's been worse than a Putinesque hit. Hits don't corrupt legal systems and establish precedents. It's been much harder to think of Julian & Wikileaks as a journalist than it should have been. They present on a nexus of belligerent, activist and journalist. This technically shouldn't affect legal processes, but... reality. I do think there's an imperative for journalism to remain journalistic, in both the hard and soft sense. Freedom of the press does, IMO, require a distinctive press, easily identified as such.

harry8 5y ago
We'll that's really traditional in Aus. Ask Peter Garret about the Nuclear Disarmament Party which had a fairly wide appeal initially. Later all the original founders resigned and advised everyone to have nothing whatever to do with it. Their one senator fro WA became an independent. Popular vehicle gets taken over by extreme radicals. Was the petition organised by Asssange or people he approved? Or was it essentially a militant communist faction using it for their own purposes because, at most charitable reading, they're right about everything as you must agree as soon as you open your eyes. As someone who is not leftist it appears to me to be prevalent and an extreme hindrance on genuine protest against the unconscionable.
- dalbasal 5y ago
  Well... He would know. He's from activist land, and probably still has a lot of friends from the punk rock scene, became a serious environmental lobbyist and from there to being a centrist MP. I'm sure he had an interesting journey. Smart guy. I actually met him several times. Seems kind of like an alien in person. I didn't know about his Nuclear Disarmament Party. >> Or was it essentially a militant communist faction Best guess, it was mostly young radicals from University of Melbourne. But... I don't think this falls into the "other people using it for their own purposes" bucket either. Wikileaks & Assange are from this (specific) resistance clique themselves. It was their neighborhood. Both the organisation and the man have always represented themselves as hard left activists. Still do. This was back in the Bush-Howard days, or just after. As with Garret's Nuclear Disarmament Party (I assume) there's a dynamic between progressive and radical thought that often leaves them in no man's land... or radical land. Like I said, being politically weird doesn't mean you lose rights or can't be a journalist. So, I'm justifying anything. I'm noting that journalists and journalistic organisations, especially those reporting on war, should not blur lines between press and "not press" themselves. Press freedom is premised on you being press. Make that unchallengeable, and obvious at first sight. Contrast this with Snowden, who knows what he is, what categories he falls into. As such, he always expected to face trial or exile. He wants to return and face trial, just with open proceedings. His was an act of civil disobedience. Meanwhile, not protected like the journalists he leaked to. They never blurred the lines between them.
  - harry8 5y ago
    NDP was a single issue party that had wider support among middle class, at that time Liberal voters than radicals. I think it was Garret's first foray into any kind of activism. From memory his rock band were mostly fairly moderate private school boys with the kinds of concerns about the state of the world that tend to cross party affiliations. In the 1980s nuclear apocalypse seemed somehow extremely likely in a way that is hard to relate if you didn't live through it. It didn't belong to party politics at all. The NDP went from that base to became a front for the pro-soviet communist party while the cold war was still very much on, thus completely undermining its original purpose and relegating it to useless and disillusioning its founders including Garret. If you were tasked with trying to destroy it as a political force given they had a fair amount of support you couldn't have done it more effectively. Seems advertising a protest in favour of journalistic freedom then flipping it to be about a bunch of other unadvertised issues and bundling it up in a petition is /exactly/ what I'm talking about. Assange's PR skills suck but I somehow doubt they suck that badly given how scared he evidently has been about what he is still facing. Being persecution by the USA in a supermax prison.

harry8 5y ago

We'll that's really traditional in Aus. Ask Peter Garret about the Nuclear Disarmament Party which had a fairly wide appeal initially. Later all the original founders resigned and advised everyone to have nothing whatever to do with it. Their one senator fro WA became an independent. Popular vehicle gets taken over by extreme radicals. Was the petition organised by Asssange or people he approved? Or was it essentially a militant communist faction using it for their own purposes because, at most charitable reading, they're right about everything as you must agree as soon as you open your eyes. As someone who is not leftist it appears to me to be prevalent and an extreme hindrance on genuine protest against the unconscionable.

dalbasal 5y ago
Well... He would know. He's from activist land, and probably still has a lot of friends from the punk rock scene, became a serious environmental lobbyist and from there to being a centrist MP. I'm sure he had an interesting journey. Smart guy. I actually met him several times. Seems kind of like an alien in person. I didn't know about his Nuclear Disarmament Party. >> Or was it essentially a militant communist faction Best guess, it was mostly young radicals from University of Melbourne. But... I don't think this falls into the "other people using it for their own purposes" bucket either. Wikileaks & Assange are from this (specific) resistance clique themselves. It was their neighborhood. Both the organisation and the man have always represented themselves as hard left activists. Still do. This was back in the Bush-Howard days, or just after. As with Garret's Nuclear Disarmament Party (I assume) there's a dynamic between progressive and radical thought that often leaves them in no man's land... or radical land. Like I said, being politically weird doesn't mean you lose rights or can't be a journalist. So, I'm justifying anything. I'm noting that journalists and journalistic organisations, especially those reporting on war, should not blur lines between press and "not press" themselves. Press freedom is premised on you being press. Make that unchallengeable, and obvious at first sight. Contrast this with Snowden, who knows what he is, what categories he falls into. As such, he always expected to face trial or exile. He wants to return and face trial, just with open proceedings. His was an act of civil disobedience. Meanwhile, not protected like the journalists he leaked to. They never blurred the lines between them.
- harry8 5y ago
  NDP was a single issue party that had wider support among middle class, at that time Liberal voters than radicals. I think it was Garret's first foray into any kind of activism. From memory his rock band were mostly fairly moderate private school boys with the kinds of concerns about the state of the world that tend to cross party affiliations. In the 1980s nuclear apocalypse seemed somehow extremely likely in a way that is hard to relate if you didn't live through it. It didn't belong to party politics at all. The NDP went from that base to became a front for the pro-soviet communist party while the cold war was still very much on, thus completely undermining its original purpose and relegating it to useless and disillusioning its founders including Garret. If you were tasked with trying to destroy it as a political force given they had a fair amount of support you couldn't have done it more effectively. Seems advertising a protest in favour of journalistic freedom then flipping it to be about a bunch of other unadvertised issues and bundling it up in a petition is /exactly/ what I'm talking about. Assange's PR skills suck but I somehow doubt they suck that badly given how scared he evidently has been about what he is still facing. Being persecution by the USA in a supermax prison.